5 replies to this topic

[spf987]

Hello,

I've recently reformatted my computer, fresh install of everything, and Houdini (Apprentice) now doesn't install/work properly.

I have WinXP SP3, Nvidia 8800GT, latest driver from Nvidia site.

I had v11 on my machine ok for a few days, but recently it went weird, gave some error message which I can't remember, and then on pressing tab, none of the nodes were there. On reloading, the Shelf had gone too. I've uninstalled, reinstalled all versions of 11 still on the download page, plus I tried v12 too. Many times, always restarting on install or uninstall just to make sure. They all give some variety of an error message during installation, and when I try to run it, the most recent error message (Build 11.1.201) is a windows message: 'This application is not configured correctly', and won't even start. Other builds of v11 did start but there was no shelf. V12 won't even start, there is some brief flicker of a message in the console, maybe to do with the lisence server.
V10 build 245 seems to get the furthest, it starts with the Building UI Cache box, then near the end, has a Fatal Segmentation Fault 3292.

One of the other builds of V11 was giving messages as in the following link on sidefx forum: (2nd Quote box)

http://www.sidefx.co...3a34801f495b1d3

I've had this computer for years and Houdini has always run fine on it, so it has to be something to with my setup after I wiped it clean. There's hardly anything on it still, Houdini is one of the first programs I installed again.

Any ideas please?
Thank you.

.

Edited by spf987, 23 May 2012 - 03:20 PM.

[edward]

My guess is that you need to install all the security updates.

[spf987]

Thanks for the suggestion Edward- though unfortunately the situation is still the same, at least as far as v11 is concerned, it does install but have missing shelf and other bits and pieces. However, I have managed to get v12 to install, EDIT though it's still unusable.. the viewport background is always white (even on reinstallation), no matter what I change the display setting to; light/dark/COP/disk file, and no geometry can be seen in the viewport, though points, point numbers and normals, plus the gizmos and grid, can all be seen. Changing the viewport mode to wireframe or any of the other options has no effect- still white.
Thanks.

Edited by spf987, 22 May 2012 - 01:21 PM.

[edward]

I'm having trouble following actually, so installing the security updates did result in a behaviour change when running H11, right? Your H11 problem now sounds like perhaps you have some bad environment variables. You'll have to give precise error messages.

As for the H12 problem, it sounds like a driver problem. Which nVidia driver version are you using exactly? Perhaps if you posted some screenshots, it might help.

[spf987]

Well well well, I had written out a fairly lengthy reply whilst I was trying some more things which I had been researching last night. I'm not sure which of the following was responsible, maybe one, maybe all or a combination, but the short version is, it's working now- both 11 and 12, so many thanks.

In case others have such problems:

Registry keys: the orginal error I mentioned '..application is configured incorrectly..' was according to some hardware forum people, maybe something to do with it. After having installed and reinstalled various times, it was suggested to remove registry keys in the registry editor, which I did after finding some Houdini related ones. I didn't particularly know what I was doing so I trod carefully.

I also installed a Microsoft C++ redistributables 2010 package which I saw mentioned in various places as a its absence would be a potential culprit.

Deleted anything and everything with Houdini in its name on the computer on the C Drive, in case there were some strange files from previous non-working versions which were confusing the new ones. There were lots of these.

Updated the NVidia driver (again.) Although when I was trying two days ago I definitely had a new driver as I only downloaded it a week ago, yesterday just before I wrote my last post I did a system restore to not long after I did my system reformat I mentioned previously, as that is when I last installed H and it was working. Unbeknownst to me it had also rolled back to the old nvidia driver which I should have realised (though I'd never used the function before so I didn't know), and being quite old, I had to download a newer one again. So now it's 6.14.13.142 (15/05/2012)

Plus the security updates which you mentioned last time. Though I thought I had done those and they would be up to date due to having upgraded to XP Service Pack 3 just recently.

So, many thanks edward. As I find happens quite a bit, looking over the same problems over and over again seems not to make a difference sometimes, and only when writing them out and asking someone else does it resolve itself. A bit like finding typos in important letters I guess.

Thank you!

Edited by spf987, 23 May 2012 - 03:12 PM.

[edward]

I'm glad you finally solved it.

FYI, XP SP3 is actually quite old. There have been quite a few security updates for it since SP3 was released.